Now that the summer is almost over, players have turned their attention to cracking the last few releases in North America - including the new promo Summon Sorceress.

​It’s got a powerful effect that can summon just about any monster from the deck, which makes it a great fit for decks that are already doing well, and allows for some cool combos we’ve never seen before. Today I’m going to walk through the construction of my Summon Sorceress Dinosaur deck, which uses the less popular of Sorceress’ two effects to do some crazy combos. Let’s get right into it!​Summon Sorceress has two effects; the first one reads “If this card is Link Summoned: You can Special Summon 1 monster from your hand in Defense Position, to your opponent’s zone this card points to.” We’re focusing on this effect, because until now it was almost impossible to reliably get a specific monster onto your opponent’s field, unless it did so with its own effect. That’s a big deal, because there are some cards that enable insane combos when they’re not under your control.

​One of those monsters is Ryu Okami, which reads “If your opponent Special Summons a monster(s): Your opponent sends 1 card from their Extra Deck to the Graveyard”. This means when we give it to our opponent with Sorceress, we’ll be the ones sending a card each time we Special Summon. Monsters like Herald of the Arc Light, Elder Entity N’tss, and PSY-Framelord Omega have powerful effects after they’ve been sent to the Graveyard, and Ryu Okami is a great way to activate the effects of these monsters without needing to summon them. In this deck, we’ll be using Omega alongside Cyber Dragon Nova, whose effect summons a Machine Fusion monster from the Extra Deck when it goes to the GY by an opponent’s card. Since the Okami is on our opponent’s field, after each Special Summon we’ll get to send Nova to the grave, then its effect will summon another monster. This will trigger Okami again, this time sending Omega to put Nova back in the Extra Deck so we can keep the combo going. Now that we’ve got the basics covered, let’s get into the deck!

Since the actual combo of Summon Sorceress + Ryu Okami uses almost exclusively cards in the Extra Deck, we can be pretty flexible with our Main Deck choices. We want our Main Deck to facilitate the combo as much as possible, which means:

1. Searching Ryu Okami and 2. making Summon Sorceress.

Sorceress needs 2+ monsters with the same Type, which is easily done with the Knightmare Link monsters. Using Knightmare Mermaid to summon Knightmare Corruptor Iblee, we can turn any 3 monsters into a Link 1 Fiend and a Link 2 Fiend, giving us the materials for Summon Sorceress. On the first point, Mariamne, the True Dracophoenix will search Okami when it’s destroyed by a card effect, meaning the True King engine will help us consistently search out our combo pieces. This engine pairs great with dinosaurs in an already-powerful deck, which also can flood the field with monsters to help make Summon Sorceress. It also gives us Miscellaneousaurus, which will be especially important in this deck because it helps start our combos and triggers Okami additional times after we get the ball rolling.

For the True King part of the deck, there’s nothing out of the ordinary from a standard True King Dinosaur deck except for Mariamne. The engine basically gives us 9 additional copies of Okami, as well as setting off the dinosaur effects we need to make Sorceress in the first place.

The ugly duckling of the dinosaur lineup is Black Ptera; it’s generally a bad draw but gives us a much-needed Wind Dinosaur to use with Mariamne. It replaces Jurrac Aeolo in this list because we don’t really have the Extra Deck space for the usual Synchro plays. The single copy of Overtex Qoatlus, Ultimate Conductor Tyranno, and Double Evolution Pill are a contingency plan that let us do standard dinosaur plays with hands where we don’t have “the combo”, and strengthen our boards in the hands where we do. Ultimate Conductor has an additional niche role in the deck, where it can set Iblee on the opponent’s side of the field as a way to trigger Mariamne without other True King cards.

If you thought this deck was too far out for Sky Strikers, you’d be mistaken! The Sky Striker cards are as powerful as ever in starting our combos, since they give 2 Link materials for our Summon Sorceress plays. Kagari being a Fire monster is also huge, as it lets us summon Agnimazud and start the rest of our plays without needing Miscellaneousaurus.

These cards aren’t found in most dinosaur lists, but they all tie in to the combo we’ve based the deck around. The Speedroids seem out of place...unless you know about Super Vehicroid - Mobile Base, a Machine Fusion that summons any “roid” monster from your deck! This will be the first Fusion we summon with Nova’s effect once we make Sorceress, since Mobile Base gives us more Special Summons and more Link materials without needing any other cards. Iblee helps us make Sorceress, since Knightmare Mermaid and another Knightmare monster meet its summoning requirements. This lets us turn any 3 monsters into Sorceress, which is another reason the Sky Strikers work so well in this deck. Last but not least, Called by the Grave is an obvious inclusion in a combo deck with so many hand traps running around.

One of the downsides of this deck is how little Extra Deck space there is to work with, but within the combo pieces there are almost limitless possibilities. The most flexibility is in the Machine fusions, which is where we can decide how we want the final boards to look. Invoked Mechaba is probably the best one, since it’s a strong ending monster by itself and is also Level 9, so we can combine it with a True King to make True King of All Calamities. We want at least one Mobile Base to extend our combos, but two are included here so we can end with Number 81 as an extra layer of protection. Other possibilities include Chimeratech Rampage Dragon, which is a Level 5 to make Cyber Dragon Nova and Cyber Dragon Infinity, along with an effect that sends Light Machines to the graveyard to summon ABC - Dragon Buster! With access to monsters of almost any level and a variety of effects, the combo enabled by the core of the main deck lets you flex your creative muscles and make lots of ridiculous boards.

​For those of you that want to see the deck in action, here’s a video of me playing a version of the deck that ends with 2 Invoked Mechaba, ABC - Dragon Buster, Cyber Dragon Infinity, and True King of All Calamities! To get there, it’s all about using your Ryu Okami triggers to pull out monsters or put monsters back in your deck, while keeping in mind which zones your Link arrows point to. The order of your effects matters a lot, so it’s important to practice the combo before playing real games with the deck!

Summon Sorceress is one of the most talked-about cards of the year, enabling some crazy new combos that almost any deck can use. What ways are you planning on using Summon Sorceress? Don’t forget to message the ARG Pro Yugioh Facebook page if you have a deck you would like to be featured in a Deck Doctor article, and as always, Play Hard or Go Home!​-Vinnie Silverman

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By VINNIE SILVERMAN​

Vinnie Silverman has been playing Yu-Gi-Oh! at a competitive level for 8 years and is always on the forefront of new deck building strategies. When he's not playing at locals with his latest brew, he studies Chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University and learns other TCGs.

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